26. july 2018   |   Horseshoe Meadow - tentsite   |   8,7 ml - 1.884 ft up - 837 ft down

Typical american breakfast

Sleeping in a real bed is so nice, again today I'm up super early, there’s prettey good wifi connection and i order resupply to VVR where we should be in 2 weeks! That done, i call Jen and arrange for her to drive us back to the trailhead.

Alabama Hills Cafe has the best breakfast! It’s just across the street, so we have a big feast and a lot of coffee, but we can’t eat these big american potions! Doggybags for the rescue! At 10:00 we are picked up by Jen, we are now her Danish family 😉 and we arrange to phone her when we get over Keaserge pass in 6 days, so she can pick us up there, this time we pay for the ride, but it’s only 20$ for an hour ride and good conversation!

The doggybags comes in handy when we are at the trailhead, we eat the rest of the breakfast before starting the ascend up to Cottonwood Pass,

INYO National forest

Waiting out the rain

as we get closer to the top we are hit by a thunderstorm … again! we have to seek shelter between big boulders and trees, it even start to hail again! 

After waiting out the worst, we hike the last bit up to the pass, it’s still raining a bit at the top and the mountain just next to us gets hammered by the thunderstorm, it’s that way we are heading so we decide to pitch the tent and wait for the storm to pass, it takes 2 hours before it’s safe to hike again

Packing up the raingear

Taking pictures atop big rocks! the best place

The trail goes right next to Chicken Spring Lake, we go up to check it out, but theres a lot of people around and we decide for a campside a few miles further up on the trail, again we are treated with a nice campsite, for dinner we try a freeze dried meal and it is so good! No more idahoan mashed potatoes for me

Moonrise and sunset! and we a super view of the valley below, it’s hard not to enjoy this evening!

Chicken Spring Lake, it's there, for shure!

Sunset over the meadows below, spot Mikkel!

Sunset - just awesome!